My newest addiction! My photographs are the tabby cat in the second row and the Texas waffle in the third row. After all of the "arty" photographs I've taken and submitted, I never dreamed that my two most popular photographs, featured on the RedBubble home page, would be my cat and a waffle I made for my breakfast.

Last month, I stumbled across a photographer’s blog that mentioned the RedBubble art and photography website, so I checked it out — then I signed up. Now, I can’t stay away from it. The amount of incredible excellent art and photography on cyberspace is mind-boggling — and from teenagers, even.

If only we’d had digital photography and computers when I was a kid. (We did have electric typewriters with correction tape. And boy did I need the tape! ) All of my hard-earned darkroom skills are now archaic. Using film, an enlarger and developing chemicals these days is like listening to your music on vinyl disks. You have to be hard-core to do it. I love the instant gratification as well as the ability to edit in so many ways in digital photography! We “edited” in the film darkroom, too, but it was limited. And I only did black and white. (I won’t even go into cameras. More on that later.)

Birds are an extremely popular photography subject. You need a twist to stand out from the flock. I took this photograph of a cardinal holding on for dear life as he's buffeted in an early spring snow storm on a pear tree branch outside my kitchen window. You can't see the detail here, but the blossoms are covered with snow and the branches encrusted with ice. The poor cardinal, as brave as he is, is probably too common.

I started with Flickr, but I love RedBubble’s Aussie cheekiness. Etsy is fun, too. (I discovered Kenna Foster on Etsy. She’s also on Flickr. She’s on my blogroll. Check her out!) I don’t know how many photography and art sites are online, but there must be tens of thousands of photographers and artists looking at and commenting on one another’s work, everyone from professionals to the people posting their first work. It’s inspiring, overwhelming and humbling at the same time.

My photograph of Paddington with his mis-matched eyes has been very popular with other cat owners and lovers. Paddington is tired of me pursuing him with a camera and is going to take out a restraining order against me.

On RedBubble or Etsy, there’s a chance that someone will see one of your great photographs or artworks and decide that they can’t live without it. On Etsy, the artists themselves produce and deliver the work.

If you order through RedBubble, RB produces and ships the art as a card, print, canvas, calendar or poster. I suspect that much of the art sold on RB is to the artists and photographers themselves. I bought my own photograph (below) of the View from the Sydney Tower on canvas. Those RedBubble people know what they’re doing!

Anyone who signs up for RedBubble (It’s free) can also get a free photography website, which is very cool. You can organize your photos into galleries. It was incredibly simple. You can join a huge number of specialty groups on RB, such as landscapes, sunsets and sunrises, wildlife, doors and windows, old theaters, rivers, pets, food, skies — in fact not even the sky is the limit. Each group has sub-sets, too. There are groups with minimal standards, and there are groups by invitation only, and everything in between.

I like to photograph oddball things, such as this van parked at Bondi Beach in Sydney. I think the driver is trying to contact the mother ship.

Featured photographs and art usually are exceptional, awe-inspiring, off-beat, fresh or eye-popping or else tug at your heart-strings (or else the person who selected it just took the next artwork that came along…..)

I know many of you out there are photographers. What is your favorite photography website? What are your favorite subjects. What do you do with all of your photographs? Do you print many? Why do you take photographs? I wanna know! If you want to see a RedBubble website, here’s mine. I’m still working on it. My favorite gallery is “Fun Stuff”. Catherine Sherman Photography.

10 responses to “I’m Addicted to Digital”

Nope, That’s straight out of my camera. I don’t have many tricks or tools — yet. The photo version I’m having printed in large scale is sharper than the one in my blog. I took five shots, but this is the only one that was any good. Cathy

Your photographs are great, and I can see why they chose the cat and waffle for the most popular: that cat looks freakin’ mighty and powerful while the waffle has meaning to it. I just really like your photographs! Redbubble seems like an excellent site for amateur and professional photographers. I’m gonna go check it out to look at some of people’s artwork.

I’m getting caught up on your blog now that I’m back and having fun. If you think about how much it used to cost us to take 32 pictures vs. digital it’s mindblowing. We have 1,000 pictures from Tassie alone. By the way, I love your cats!

Yes, film and developing is expensive for just a few photos, and you never knew what you were going to get. This way you can see right away that you have a good shot (to some extent), and if not you can keep trying.(I’m preaching to the choir here, ha, ha!) Plus, you only need to print what you want and maybe do a little editing, too. I can’t wait to see your photos and hear more about your trip.

You know I love your photography and am looking forward to being your photo assistant this summer (no freezing birds then). Now that you’ve gone digital, I believe this involves just tagging along and providing color commentary. Since you are now a “redbubblite,” can people post your pictures on their blogs? Just curious. You know how often I write about cats.

Hey, you did give me a link to one of my cat posts. RedBubblelites are trying to sell their work (ha, ha)! I welcome your assistance! I need all of the help I can get, and your commentary will be top-notch. The way the weather has been going here, we may well have freezing birds this summer. Brrrrrrrrrr. Cathy

It is a digital world indeed. I love your waffle pictures – I have to know the Texas connection (I am from San Antonio originally) and cat pictures well – there are never enough. I love any kind of picture really and you take some good ones.
I still film. I love the colors and shadows. Love polaroids. I am collecting as much film as I can afford. I think my favorite will always be sepia tones in film (or digital) and those pictures that take in a huge amount of landscape or image that are really long – rectangular shots (I cannot remember what they are called) – I always look for those at antique shops and miss that we do not have those.Hey, thanks for your comments. My sister lives in Tyler, Texas, so we visit her and her family often. When I took the waffle photo, we had continued on to Rockport, where we saw whooping cranes. These were do-it-yourself-waffles in the hotel buffet. I was so excited to see them because a good friend sells these commercial Texas (and other shapes) waffle makers. I HAD to take a photo for my friend, plus I just love Texas doodads.

I love panorama photos, too. Eventually, I’m going to get Photoshop, where you can blend photos together to get those panoramic views.

As for film, I’m so messy and save everything, that I was grateful to be able to store images on dvds and the computer, although of course they could be lost in an instant, and negatives endure longer. I still have all of my film negatives. I do like some of the effects you can make make with real film. Digital imitates some of those, such as sepia.

Thanks Cathy for this post and all the info!! Malcom is my first pic, he’s so adorable and thinks he’s so tough at the same time. I can’t wait to start on Redbubble. Your pictures are amazing as always and now I’m motivated to produce more!

I’m learning here. I’d never taken a photo before I began my blog (the rest of my family took the shots) so I feel very much the new kid on the block. Do you think it’s worth trying some of my pics up there?

Paula, your photographs are fantastic! Not only do they tell the story, but they are also beautiful. There are groups on RedBubble devoted to farms and rural areas. I don’t think you have to sign up to see any of the work, but I think it’s easier. Also, I don’t anyone is getting a lot of sales, but it does make it easier for people to buy your work as art. People who enjoy your photography on the blog would appreciate the opportunity to buy some of the photos that you uploaded to the site. And people who saw your work on RB would then find your blog and enjoy that!

What RB did for me was show me what other people found interesting and showed how much gorgeous work is out there. It also shows how art and photography can be combined. It’s made me work harder. Some of my photographs that I thought were great are just ordinary! I’m not uploading as much. Many people use the site as a way to work on their photography, too. There’s a beginner’s group, for example. Other groups are so serious about the work that I don’t dare join them……Others are fun and admit everyone. There are plenty of pet photo groups, too. Cathy

Cathy!!! Wow! I have been falling behind lately, now trying to limit my blogging, social-sites, etc… time, but just had to slip over for a quick visit since it’s been a while. Boy am I glad I did! Otherwise, I would have missed getting to thank you for the compliment/mention in this post, you wonderful sweet lady! I am humbled, honored, and amazed (but apparently not speechless! hee hee). I have redbubble on my list to check out, but can’t bear the thought of adding any more sites I have to visit right now– overwhelmed and wondering how people manage to keep up…

Anyway, I had around your RedBubble gallery and I am VERY impressed!! Good for you- you have some excellent photos on there! You’ll have to let me know if you think it’s a great online venue/something I really shouldn’t put off. 😉

Well, that’s enough wordiness I guess, but again, Thank you so much and big congratulations on all your lovely shots (also loved Sydney & the “clinging cardinal”).